On Sat., Oct. 4, the FHN Ecology Club went on a club outing to go “geocaching” around the St. Charles area as part of a team bonding

activity.  After surveying the interest of club members, Ecology Club President, senior Kristina Forst, came up with the idea to go geocaching.

“It was my decision to go,” Forst said. “We wanted to have another activity. Last picnic, not many people showed up and Brocksmith wanted to go geocaching because he’s never been before.”

Geocaching is GPS-powered scavenger hunts where participants search for hidden goodies around the area. Once an item or cache is found, hunters are required to sign their name and the date they found the object in a small notebook typically attached to the item. Hunters are also required to replace the found item with something else and put it back in its hiding spot.

“I hope they maybe pick up a new hobby, something that will get them off the couch and be active outdoors,” Ecology Club Sponsor Joe Brocksmith said. ‘I think that’s kind of a primary focus of Ecology Club in general, just to get kids interested in the outdoors, and the ones that are interested to keep them interested and show them new things they can do, instead of play on computers and video games and watch TV.”

The club met at FHN prior to going out on their geocaching excursion in order to prepare for the festivities. Once all participating club members arrived, they were broken into teams depending on driving arrangements and knowledge of navigation. In order to add an element of friendly competition, the team who found the most caches got to choose the location of a celebratory late lunch after the activity.

“I think it’s a friendly competition,” Brocksmith said. “They’re playing for ego.”

Because this is the club’s first official outing, Forst hopes that this activity will spark more interest in Ecology Club and encourage more people to come to the meetings. Through more fun activities, Forst wants to prepare members for future activities to come, such as the float trip at the end of the year.

“I’m looking forward to the float trip at the end of the year because I love float trips and Brocksmith is hilarious,” club member Allison Weyhrich said

Overall, the main goal for Forst and Brocksmith on the geocaching trip was to build and strengthen the relationships of club members. In order to work more closely on activities, such as trash pick ups and conservation projects, Forst believes that team bonding is an integral part of the process.

“Even though Ecology Club is a lot about saving the environment, it’s always fun to do other things besides that and get outdoors,” Forst said. “And just getting outdoors helps people get excited about other things Ecology Club does, such as trash pick ups, and just helps people bond.”